#service worker

[fictionalmansidehoe]

tears in my eyes as my coworker crush tells me he went on a date over the weekend and they kissed </333 that's should've been me

[fightthereality]

Hey I don’t know who doesn’t know this yet but in my experience it’s a LOT of folks so here we go

Hey all! If at the end of a business interaction in which you are the consumer (checking out at the Home Depot, resolving an issue with customer support, etc), you are asked to take a survey to rate your experience

Please, please just do it if you can.

Not only that, but if you are satisfied with your consumer experience

Please

Go ahead and give the highest rating

“But why should I go out of my way to do a corporations research for them for free?”

I hear you asking, because I’m a magical fae creature (queer punk).

Well I’ll

Fucking

Tell you

Yes, obviously, these surveys are just a ploy to get consumer data without conducting actual paid research.

However.

Because of already high turnover rates, a bunch of these corporations use these metrics to measure how well they treat their floor employees.

In other words, these surveys are not only used for wringing out as much money from you as possible— they’re also used as an excuse to keep employees in a state of never being able to meet expectation.

Let me explain.

In [redacted company name that rhymes with Amiibo] we are…well, not so much <I>encouraged</I> as outright told to get as many people to take these surveys as possible. We have a goal metric to meet for percentages, and that metric raises every goddamn year. Right now it’s at 90%.

The ONLY kind of review that contributes to a rise in percentage is a five star review.

The ONLY way for employees to meet the BASELINE expectations is to have a perfect score on these reviews. And the only way to be recognized for it is to be mentioned by name in that survey.

Which means we have to not only push these surveys but ensure that consumers know to rate five stars

Because anything under five stars is seen by the boss as a negative experience

Of course, this metric standard is not at ALL made clear to the people taking the survey, so we’ll meaning people often put in 4 stars and a lovely comment, because that’s now star ratings are SUPPOSED TO FUCKING WORK

but instead, the company sees that as “well these guys aren’t doing enough”

I’ve seen entire departments have their staffing GUTTED after not meeting these metrics for long enough.

They’re used as an excuse not to pay employees more, and can be used as an excuse to terminate someone making waves

So next time you get a chance to survey your minimum wage cashier or garden associate

Please take the time to do so if you can, and just absolutely wreck their metrics with love pleaseandthankyou

[the-lex-exe]

silently and peacefully awaiting my death as i get into work… Getting prodded into the hellish flames of service work … and i have to train someone today. i think that’s a double whammy. it’s even Funnier when you realize training people was Not in my job description….. sigh….

[theglassdragoncollective]

[ID 1: Screenshot of tag reading, "#I can't tell if this is a true story or allegory." End ID 1]

[ID 2: Picture of a rolling cart with sides that are adjacent to jail cell bars. End ID 2]

I spent a lot of time handcuffed and in a cage in high school, for a charity bit the grocery store I worked at would do

the bit was that I was "put in jail for having too big a heart" and customers could donate to my bail to get me out (and the money would go to a children's hospital or something)

now. I was very clearly a teenaged employee handcuffed inside a large cage. and I would honestly tell people that I had been in there for hours. and people would say, that's terrible! that's awful! and I would show them my wrists red from the tight handcuffs, and say but I'm sooooooo close to making bail.

and then they would dump some cash in the basket, I'd thank them, and they'd walk away.

and every so often, one of the managers would come by and collect some of the cash, so I could keep being soooooo close to making bail.

I was very good with this bit. Parents with small kids would pay $5-10 if I told their children I had been placed in jail for not cleaning my room/doing my homework, etc. For people in their 20s, I'd threaten that I was very bad at playing the harmonica, but I WOULD play it and we'd all suffer unless they paid me. and for the most amount of money, older men in suits would almost always pay $20s if I avoided eye contact and stammered a lot.

eventually, the managers started to feel bad because I was in the cage so fucking long and often, that I'd need someone to brace me when I got out because I'd have no feeling in my legs. wobbling like a newborn giraffe.

but I would also rake in at LEAST $100 an hour in charity.

so they were like, hey champ. can we, uh, give you a pillow to sit on. in the cage. would you like a pillow so you're not just sitting on a cold metal slab. can we give you a pillow.

and I had to explain to them that if they gave me a pillow, people would think I was more comfortable, so they wouldn't feel as bad, so I'd bring in less money.

the compromise was that they'd bring me a nice coffee every couple hours, which I would have to try to block with my body from the customers.

all this money went to charity. that's what the money was for. it's what was on the sign. but how much they were willing to pay was very contingent on how comfortable I looked, never mind the fact that I was still a teenaged employee handcuffed inside a cage.

and out of the dozens of shifts I did this on, not ONCE did ANYONE say, hey kid I'm going to go talk to your manager because what the fuck is going on here. they would just drop money in the basket, and I'd thank them and sip from my secret drink.

I actually had people get MAD at me that I told them I was far away from bail, they donated like $15, and then 20 minutes I got let out because my shift ended.

again. the money was for charity. it was on the sign that was very clearly placed on the upper half of my cage.

so yeah. even when people think they mean well. people can be really, really fucking stupid.

[victusinveritas]

[bastardstevie]

Here's a quick reminder to just be fucking nice to service workers. There's no goddamn reason to treat us like we're subhuman. We have feelings, I promise!

[homedepot12ftskeleton]

My resolution for 2025 is to be less chronically offline because I’ve begun to feel like a boomer.

Idk what the youths are talking about these days, but apparently there was this controversy a while back about wether or not cashiers should say hello?? As a cashier, I enjoy the little small talk I make with customers. Small bouts of real human connection feel like a relief after staring at a tablet for hours. And on the days I don’t feel like talking to people? I just say hi. They say hi back and 98% of the time that’s the end of the interaction, but at least I have acknowledged them as people. Maybe for some people that’s too much, but a one word greeting doesn’t feel like too much emotional labor for someone who’s job it is to talk to people.

I’m beginning to fear that the internet has convinced a generation that they can disregard every random human being they meet and still live in a functioning society. It’s not just cashiers, YOU should also be polite to strangers and acknowledge them as human beings. Complement your coworker’s outfit, ask your professors for book recommendations, engage with your community. Otherwise we’ll all end up alone.

TLDR: y’all should join me offline

[mariflexion]

disbarment era phoenix gets a fast food job

[politijohn]

Source

[maxx420]

me accidentally unmasking st Starbucks because people be TESTING MY FUCKING PATIENCE TODAY

[mikufanclub]

[angelstalkshit]

yes tf i am

[a-world-where-cocoa-is-purple]

working on service is acting like spongebob, but actually being squidward on the inside

[reasonsforhope]

Federal regulators on Tuesday [April 23, 2024] enacted a nationwide ban on new noncompete agreements, which keep millions of Americans — from minimum-wage earners to CEOs — from switching jobs within their industries.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday afternoon voted 3-to-2 to approve the new rule, which will ban noncompetes for all workers when the regulations take effect in 120 days [So, the ban starts in early September, 2024!]. For senior executives, existing noncompetes can remain in force. For all other employees, existing noncompetes are not enforceable.

[That's right: if you're currently under a noncompete agreement, it's completely invalid as of September 2024! You're free!!]

The antitrust and consumer protection agency heard from thousands of people who said they had been harmed by noncompetes, illustrating how the agreements are "robbing people of their economic liberty," FTC Chair Lina Khan said. 

The FTC commissioners voted along party lines, with its two Republicans arguing the agency lacked the jurisdiction to enact the rule and that such moves should be made in Congress...

Why it matters

The new rule could impact tens of millions of workers, said Heidi Shierholz, a labor economist and president of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. 

"For nonunion workers, the only leverage they have is their ability to quit their job," Shierholz told CBS MoneyWatch. "Noncompetes don't just stop you from taking a job — they stop you from starting your own business."

Since proposing the new rule, the FTC has received more than 26,000 public comments on the regulations. The final rule adopted "would generally prevent most employers from using noncompete clauses," the FTC said in a statement.

The agency's action comes more than two years after President Biden directed the agency to "curtail the unfair use" of noncompetes, under which employees effectively sign away future work opportunities in their industry as a condition of keeping their current job. The president's executive order urged the FTC to target such labor restrictions and others that improperly constrain employees from seeking work.

"The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy," Khan said in a statement making the case for axing noncompetes. "Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand."

Real-life consequences

In laying out its rationale for banishing noncompetes from the labor landscape, the FTC offered real-life examples of how the agreements can hurt workers.

In one case, a single father earned about $11 an hour as a security guard for a Florida firm, but resigned a few weeks after taking the job when his child care fell through. Months later, he took a job as a security guard at a bank, making nearly $15 an hour. But the bank terminated his employment after receiving a letter from the man's prior employer stating he had signed a two-year noncompete.

In another example, a factory manager at a textile company saw his paycheck dry up after the 2008 financial crisis. A rival textile company offered him a better job and a big raise, but his noncompete blocked him from taking it, according to the FTC. A subsequent legal battle took three years, wiping out his savings. 

-via CBS Moneywatch, April 24, 2024

--

Note:

A lot of people think that noncompete agreements are only a white-collar issue, but they absolutely affect blue-collar workers too, as you can see from the security guard anecdote.

In fact, one in six food and service workers are bound by noncompete agreements. That's right - one in six food workers can't leave Burger King to work for Wendy's [hypothetical example], in the name of "trade secrets." (x, x, x)

Noncompete agreements also restrict workers in industries from tech and video games to neighborhood yoga studios. "The White House estimates that tens of millions of workers are subject to noncompete agreements, even in states like California where they're banned." (x, x, x)

The FTC estimates that the ban will lead to "the creation of 8,500 new businesses annually, an average annual pay increase of $524 for workers, lower health care costs, and as many as 29,000 more patents each year for the next decade." (x)

Clearer explanation of noncompete agreements below the cut.

Noncompete agreements can restrict workers from leaving for a better job or starting their own business.

Noncompetes often effectively coerce workers into staying in jobs they want to leave, and even force them to leave a profession or relocate.

Noncompetes can prevent workers from accepting higher-paying jobs, and even curtail the pay of workers not subject to them directly.

Of the more than 26,000 comments received by the FTC, more than 25,000 supported banning noncompetes. 

[friskenipper]

Rashid!Armand spitting in Daniel's martinis after the rent boy comment, which is why Daniel thinks they taste better than Rashid's. (To be clear, Rashid is also spitting in Daniel's drinks for his own reasons, but human spit doesn't have that extra oomf that vampire spit does.)

[political-us]